Discussions By Condition: I cannot get a diagnosis.

Please help me find a diagnosis!

Well, my symptoms have been going on since about the end of April. I started having diarrhea and a sharp pain in my back on the right side (lower). I ignored it and promised to go to the Dr., which I did once the end of May came and I had a 103 fever, vomiting, worse diarrhea, and became dehydrated. I was put in the hospital for four days. The docs said they thought it was Crohn's disease. I had a dye CT done, with nothing exceptional shown. Then I did an upper GI, and drank a bunch of barium. Still had docs puzzled, but still thought I had Crohn's and wanted to do a colonoscopy. So afterward (about a month), still having diarrhea (bloody) and lots of abdominal pain, I went to a GI doc. He did the colonoscopy and found one inflamed polyp, everything else was fine. The doc put me on Prednisone, which seemed to help the symptoms. I had blood work and the sed rate was about a 12 and I am 32. Last week I had a small bowel function and stomach study done, with more barium. Results were fine. Now, I have started the bloody diarrhea AGAIN with stomach cramps and on Monday, he wants me to start reducing my dose of meds, which had seemed to help some of the symptoms. I have also lost about twenty five pounds in the last two months, about six-ten pounds now every two weeks! Also, I have mouth ulcers. The doc did mention that there is a possibility of Sprue (sp?) Any advice or suggestions. I think I've looked every place on the Internet for possible ideas.:confused:

5 Replies:

The doctor means celiac disease (sometimes known as celiac sprue). It's intolerance to wheat. There are blood tests you can have for this but they aren't alwys reliable. If you have this you need to get help to take wheat out of your diet. It's complicated because many foods have wheat products in them that you would never think of, like candies and lipstick.

If they thought it was celiac too bad did not take biopsies when they were in there. But, you can go gluten free. Go to the Celiac Support groups --google for. They provide lists of foods, condiments, and makeups to avoid. Yep avoid lipsticks and mascaras that have gluten. Gluten is the sticky stuff that holds flour together --makes it sticky --that is why you will find variations of it in everything from paste to salad dressing to mascara to some of your medicines and vitamins. Always buy gluten free.

The doctor means celiac disease (sometimes known as celiac sprue). It's intolerance to wheat. There are blood tests you can have for this but they aren't alwys reliable.. The most reliable test which will say if celiac disease is a possibility or not is the genetic testing for it. If you dont have the celiac disease genotype.. it basically rules out having celiac disease. I suggest you have that test to find out. If you do have the celiac genotype thou.. you may or may not have celiacs. Doctor then should do a bowel biopsy to see if you have flattening of the villi

Even if there is not the celiac gene, there can be gluten intolerance that can tear up your colon. I have that. It does a job on me. My villi are flattened and damaged because of another disorder that has symptoms similar to celiac.